If it's good enough for Saif Ali Khan, it's good enough for you.

I Think Fitness, Mumbai

The best place to spot celebrities

Behind French windows that stretch 20 feet high, rhythmically bouncing high-rollers sweat it out to electronic music. Every single girl in your row of treadmills is hot. But none will talk to you. That’s because most of them are either Bollywood actresses or models, and they’re judging your glutes. But don’t be put off, there’s pleasure to be derived from watching their preening boyfriends going through the grind too, hunched over step machines, legs whirring like rats on a wheel. Add to that the appeal of a large, sunlit space (a luxury in the city) and some seriously new-age equipment, and this is easily one of the swankiest places in Mumbai to get messy.

Best use of the treadmill screen: A program powered by Google that allows you to choose anywhere in the world to run – like London’s Hyde Park

Height of the dome-shaped glass ceiling: 30 ft

Outdoor scene: A basketball court, badminton court and a 1,000-squarefoot garden for yoga

Best dish at the members-only Pali Café: Grilled tenderloin with sweet potato mash

Club Oasis, Grand Hyatt , Mumbai

The best place for a 3AM workout

Who on earth wants to work out in the middle of the night? Turns out, a fair number of people with abnormal sleeping patterns and workaholics who can’t find time during the day. Which is why the Grand Hyatt Mumbai has come up with a clever twilight membership. It’s cheaper than the regular day membership, there’s no wait for any of the machines, and using its large, empty sports facilities at 3am is the calisthenics equivalent of bingeing on absinthe. You can’t use the football field to make out with your girlfriend, though. Unless you want to be caught on CCTV.

General membership timings: 24 hours

Twilight membership timings: 11pm – 5am

For sports enthusiasts: A football field, a basketball court, a tennis court

To re-tox afterwards: A bar by the pool that serves health drinks as well as cocktails

Reebok CrossFit, Gurgaon

For the happy puker

In the whacky cultish world of CrossFit, this is India’s star gym. It’s all bare bones and manly – a far cry from regular spaces jammed with machinery. Workouts are simple, badass and low-tech: jumping rope, body-weight exercises and weight lifting. If you’re doing it right, CrossFit will involve some muscle failure and the desire to barf, but the intensity is addictive. Just ask Hrithik Roshan or John Abraham.

The philosophy: The needs of Olympic athletes and our grandparents differ by degree, not kind

Which means: It’s one program for all

Equipment: Ropes, rings, kettlebells and weights

Area of empty floor space: 30,000 square feet

The most non-gym activity offered: Barbeque night

Sumaya, Delhi

If you change your fitness regime more often than your socks

“Indoor rowing is happening, man. In a big way.” If your conversations with friends go something like this, you’re a fitness fad addict and you’ll feel right at home at Sumaya. From TRX to Kinesis, the gym’s instructors specialize in specific regimes to help you reach your goals – say, achieving Olympian-worthy shoulders like the Winklevii. And, if you’re an athletic aesthete, look no further. With futuristic design elements and Swiss balls of every imaginable size placed artistically around the carpeted space, the result is space-ship fitness centre-meets-five-star hotel.

The latest fad: Regular boot camps

Which feels like: A cross between Survivor and an especially fratty year at Weekender

Their most elaborate outdoor activity: Scuba diving

Fitness philosophy inspired by: Kabbalah

Which means: There will be a lot of chakra talk

If you reach early: Hit the steam room or the café, which serves signature protein shakes.

Fitness Center, The Ritz-Carlton Bangalore

When you need to video conference while burning calories

Client meeting? Or gym workout? How about both? If you’re a member of the Fitness Center at the Ritz-Carlton, you can simply vid-con with your client while on the treadmill. Located in the heart of the business district, it’s a convenient stop post-work or just before a meeting at the hotel. From free WiFi to secretarial services, working out here doesn’t need to be very different from being in your own office. Save the cold beer after, of course.

While you-work-out business services: Copying, printing, scanning, faxing and access to on-site couriers

Gym equipment by: Technogym

On the same floor: An open air pool bar

Area of the pool terrace: 5,800 square feet

Amatrra Spa, Hotel Ashok, Delhi

When you don’t want to work out

It’s not very often that you go to your gym to get a perm, haircut or a glass of wine. That’s probably because your gym isn’t Amatrra. If it were, you would also get yourself a body wrap, have sushi for dinner, socialize with Delhi’s elite by the pool and then be completely bewildered the next day at office when your colleague complains bitterly about his wife forcing him to go to the gym.

For when you aren’t working out: An outdoor whirlpool, a salon and an Ayurvedic spa